GamerGate should be in PR crisis mode. It’s not. It can’t be. And it doesn’t know how.
Gamergate is, right now, a hashtag that is ABOUT harassment. That’s not what it’s better angels want. There’s a large contingent of people that are in there that are deeply committed to improving the games industry press, and care about that. They think that’s what they’ve signed up for. I don’t agree with their principles, their priorities or their view of how the industry actually works, but the better angels clearly want to clean up what they see as a fucked up enterprise.
But all of that is buried now, under a daily drumbeat of harassment, harassment, HARASSMENT. What are the news stories for the last few days? Let’s look at my current twitter feed and KiA, reddit’s central source for the latest Gamergate goings on. Briana Wu being harassed. Briana Wu going on MSNBC and getting her twitter hacked. Briana Wu is an awful person (multiple times) USU cancelling Anita’s speaking gig because of a shooter threat. Boogie is being harassed. Zoe Quinn freaking out about being on MSNBC facing her harasser. Just endless news on harassment of anti-gg AND gg personalities, defenses against harassment, denials against harassment, and spiteful, hateful bile thrown at people who accuse them of harassment.
Oh, and #Gamergate is finally hitting the mainstream press. MSNBC: harassment. CNN: harassment. HuffPost: harassment. Mentions of ethics are an afterthought. The harassment infighting is so fierce that when an actual Ethics issue pops up, it doesn’t get nearly the attention as, say, a blow-by-blow detail of what happened in Zoe Quinn’s restraining order hearing.
And no, I don’t think that #Gamergate is behind all the harassment. I do believe that the origins of the hashtag come from harassment from the ‘burgers and fries’ era, and I do believe that #Gamergate still has some extremely bad actors doing very shitty stuff deep beneath the surface. Let’s not let the bad Gamergaters, the ones who were shitty to Brianna and Zoe before their doxings, and are shitting on them now, off the hook. But I think a lot of it is from third party assholes that has found that it’s a lot of fun to poke the anthill and watch everyone freak out. If I were a betting man, I’d actually bet that’s what happened with Brianna and GGFeminist.
That doesn’t matter now. The wishes of the better angels simply don’t matter right now. The truth is simple: if you are a casual observer and you google or search for #gamergate, this pile of toxic shit is what comes up first. And no matter what they do, they just can’t stop talking about it. And so the stink just keeps sticking to it. GamerGate has a massive PR crisis on it’s hands, and yet it can’t be bothered to act like it.
There’s another organization that recently went through a nightmare PR crisis. The NFL. It was shitty, but they’re coming out the other side.
About a month ago, a tape surfaced that showed Ray Rice knocking his wife unconscious in a Vegas elevator. The NFL immediately took a ton of heat – they were already being slammed by the press for the original 2 week suspension that was handled down, but press outcry reached deafening levels with the new information. There were calls for the Comissioner’s head. It got worse. More women, emboldened women came forward and told their stories. The NFL stumbled on all of this, very badly, out of the gate.
For a couple of weeks, all coverage of the NFL was all about how it was made up of a bunch of misogynistic thugs. The fact they played football was almost secondary.
It was a PR crisis of epic proportions. It threatened the very existence of the league. And it took the league a while to realize this, and they initially fucked it up very, very badly, but now they have their shit together, and the Ray Rice incident is now a distant memory except for those immediately involved.
Leadership. Goodell took a tremendous amount of shit for how he handled the scandal, and he may yet still lose his job after a terrible press conference. But still, he was able to get the organization to realize how big and important the issue is, and attack it head on. Gamergate has no leadership or organization, and so even the people who understand how bad this is can’t get the bad actors to cut it out.
Ownership and Conviction of Purpose. ‘Mistakes were made’ is trite, sure. But acknowledging that the NFL fucked up in the initial handling of the Ray Rice case is, like, clearly, crisis management 101. The NFL did this, and not only admitted they fucked up, they promised not to let it happen again. “The same mistakes can never be repeated.” Meanwhile in GamerGate land, there’s been precious little ownership of their mistakes.
Empathy. The NFL knows that there are human victims in all of this. They bend out of their WAY to be sure that people understand that there’s a real human that’s suffering through the episode. The NFL didn’t beat Ray Rice’s wife, but they apologize for what she went through and how they fucked up with the punishment and created an atmosphere that allowed it to go virtually unpunished. Meanwhile, Gamergate’s first response is the OPPOSITE of empathy. You can see it with Brianna. First they denied her claims. Then they got defensive and bitchy. Then they blamed her for doing it to herself. And then they attacked her again. Surprise, surprise, Brianna is going to be sure that #gamergate is associated with harassment for as long as people are willing to put a microphone underneath her chin. And every woman who has encountered harassment online is going to be inclined to believe her.
Appreciation of the Problem. The NFL kept their guys on strict message discipline. They knew the eyes of the US was on them, and that domestic violence was a BIG DEAL. By comparison, my twitter feed tonight has NUMEROUS people suggesting that getting doxed is no big deal, and that Anita is a whiner because she should be able to handle a few death threats. A total lack of awareness.
A product worth selling. You know what makes all the bad shit go away? Every Sunday, the NFL gives me some pretty good football games, and this year’s had some real barn burners. The NFL has also done work to actually remind people that their players do a lot of good things do, particularly with the story of Devon Stills. That sort of stuff makes people long on forgiveness Meanwhile, #Gamergate doesn’t have any real victories – certainly nothing substantial since Intel, a decision that Intel now regrets. The other victories they claim are…. all dubious victories in the Harassment arena. This just serves to remind people that Harassment is the dark cloud that follows #gamergate around. Constantly. Which leads one to ask – what benefit has gaming actually GOTTEN from this psychotic episode in the industry, and does it outweigh the constant shitstorm?
Seriously, the NFL fucked up handling this issue entirely. It was awful. It was embarrassing. And yet, they handled it a hundred times better than how #Gamergate handles the topic of harassment.
What’s the solution for the cause? I don’t know. Rebranding or changing the name has been suggested. Others have suggested leadership. I think that leadership isn’t necessary but organization is. And stopping alienating the press would go a long way. Will any of that work? I don’t know.
All I know is that right now, all anyone has to do to sabotage #Gamergate is to keep being sure that every #Gamergate news story or twitter cycle is one about harassment. There seems to be plenty of trolls who are determined to keep ensuring that’s the case. But don’t be fooled, there seems to be plenty of diehard assholes deep in the ranks who are also determined to undermine those in #gamergate who have good ideas and see potential.
How to solve THAT? Beats the hell out of me.
Gamergate is dead. Cause of death: Multiple self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head over the past 72 hours.
Sorry. It’s over. After that ridiculous Escapist piece, the harassment of Brianna Wu, to the school shooting threat at Utah State, and all of the weak tea protests, “It’s not all of us but we’re too stupid to abandon the hashtag and refocus our campaign under a new banner, it’s done.
Maybe a few months or a year from now serious people can engage in serious arguments about journalism ethics or what have you, but Gamergate is through.
Mm hmm. http://kotaku.com/thousands-rally-online-against-gamergate-1646500492
At this point, the only way I see the “ethics” segment of GG having any chance of salvaging their goals out of this mess is stopping outright. Not forever, mind you, but all the momentum the tag has rolling with it is rolled up in the harassment aspects; the tag supporters I’ve talked to are loathe to split the tag or shift gears or do anything that will “weaken their message,” not realizing (or not accepting) that all that “strength” they have behind them is moving in the completely wrong direction to do anything helpful for that journalism-related concept.
Now, admittedly, I’m no marketing or political veteran, so this has no basis other than what seems sensible in my head: it just seems to me the best course of action would be to stop altogether, completely shut down the tag (as if that’s possible with trolls who would undoubtedly continue to poke the embers, but in theory at least) and give everyone time to vent and purge themselves of all the negativity related to it. I have no idea how long that would take. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, two weeks. Two weeks of NOTHING about GG at all.
Then come back in a way that’s completely on point, on message and, most importantly, DOING what they say they mean to do rather than just saying that’s what they mean to do. They need to walk the proverbial walk. Anything about harassment brought up would need to be owned – not denied, not defended, not questioned, just straight up own it – and moved beyond. It’s possible it’s too far gone for that to work now, but I think it’s their best bet: proving they’re being sincere about their goals by owning up to past mistakes and showing – not just talking about, but showing – their dedication to delving into the behind the scenes machinations of gaming journalism and actually covering those stories in a manner that consists of more than attacking people’s work out of disagreement with it.
Best I can come up with. Other than that, I got nothin’. And even that much is working off of some pretty hefty assumptions about both GG’s membership and how willing people would be to really listen to them after all this.
At this point, not just after five guys/GG but after all these years of harassment, it’s starting to look like all gamers in general, not just GG, should be in PR crisis mode.
Sadly, GG is going to drag the entire gaming community down into this shit-vortex along with it. And that includes the gaming industry.
Not that we won’t benefit in the long run from being put under the lens regarding how people are treated in the industry- it’s a good boot to the ass for those few companies who still want to run their offices like bros (you can tell because they’re usually places with wrongful termination suits filed against them). We get a black eye for being associated with all this, but maybe that’s a price worth paying to help put this issue to bed (for the most part, since these issues can never be totally done away with).
The part that I’m genuinely worried about though is when I saw the CNN article about the mass-shooting threat this morning. There’s threats, and then there’s threats, and I think that that was a signal that the latter are coming. Not that Anita shouldn’t be wary of the other threats she’s gotten- she’s absolutely done the right thing, and I think more people should. But I think this level of threat is pointing towards the fact that maybe those who are further along on the psychopath/sociopath spectrum are beginning to get involved, which means that at some point, near or far, some of these women are going to be in immediate physical danger. That may sound alarmist to some who think this is still a troll game, but not all trolls are sane, and all it takes is one person with the wrong set of mental gears turning, and this stuff gets tragic and horrifying real quick.
TL;DR: This shit is spinning out of control.
WE ARE. #Stopgamergate2014
What makes every claim that GG is “not condoning harrassment” laughable?
Since 5-7 days, all we’ve seen from GG is critiques and shaming of harrassment victims. And not the slightest hint of solidarity.
From “you did not follow law enforcement advices” to “Anita is getting jealous of attention to Brianna”
https://twitter.com/Nero/status/521725717152034816
Note the 300+ RT and favorites to this tweet. THAT says something about the GG community.
And this is just Nero`s timeline
I strongly advice you dont look at Balwind`s. It`s even worse
Apparently, attacking and shaming harrassment victims because “they did not abide by some LE rules that are suddenly universal and apply to every single situation” was really in fashion this week.
Funny to see Milo run away from Gamergate, JUST as threats against Anita get worse, and JUST as he “OMG I’M FURIOUS I SPENT 250$ FOR A RADIO SHOW AND BRIANNA DID`NT SHOW UP FOR MY STRONGLY BIASED AND ACCUSATORY INTERVIEW”
It’s even too toxic for Milo now. THAT says something.
You may be rigth Damien but I wont shut up for fear of a witch hunt. Catch the people responsible Im all for it. I wont ever apologize for anything I did not do or condone. Nor accept being tagged as a hate group.
“Nor accept being tagged as a hate group.”
That’s the nifty thing about hate groups. They never accept the tag. The leader of the KKK calls it “A Christian organization.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/21/virginia-kkk-fliers_n_5008647.html
Lynchings? Murders? Cross-burnings? Campaigns of violence and intimidation? Those are literally described as “a few rogue Klansman,” despite being a formal and well-described part of KKK doctrine for *years.*
I’m not saying GG is the KK, nor anything close to it. The point of bringing them up is to illustrate that the members of America’s most recognizable, storied, long-running, and well-known hate group can tell a major news publication with a straight face that they AREN’T.
Humans are really, really good at doublethink.
The chief problem I have with defining GG as a hate group is that it is very hard to define GG as a “group.” It’s a flag carried by a lot of people for a lot of different reasons, and it has only grown more chaotic as time goes on. Unfortunately, by this point I think that extremists on both sides (and yes, there are opposing sides to this, and I can attest to this due to spending hours knee-deep in Twitter while this blew up) have reduced the whole situation to two angry mobs flailing at each other and each trying to shout louder than the other on Twitter.
I don’t really see any way anything good or productive can come out of this at this point. The only thing we can hope for is for this thing to peter out soon, and then maybe the community can piece through the rubble and try to salvage something, anything of value from this debacle.
Sure. I’m not trying to say GG is a hate group — at least, not the way that the KKK is a hate group. You can’t join the KKK and pretend you didn’t know it just happened to have a few ugly racial policies back on Page 10.
But Gamergate’s disorganization and lack of structure don’t just allow a few bad apples to spoil the basket — they indirectly encourage the *worst* bad apples into effective positions of prominence.
GG may never be organized enough to be declared a “group” and therefore may never codify a lot of these horrifically bad viewpoints and statements into a Belief Statement — but it’s something along the lines of a hate herd. It’s awful hard to run *against* a mob of people and people who try risk getting crushed at best.
Then you should just speak for yourself and not waste your time trying to defend a hash tag used by an angry mob.
I do. But the angry mob in all of this is just not #gamergate. Everyone is all to eager to mix the good with the bad in a neat little bag and burn everyone on it.
If we really hate women why there is any in gg trying to speak out? And any minority at all?
The vile thing is women in both sides have been targeted, a lot more people should be concerned about their safety.
If all you can see is your problem, you have another problem.
And comparing gamergate to a century old murderus racist movement is the kind of talk that infuriates anyone.
No, #gamergate is the angry mob.
Then there’s everyone else mad about #gamergate. That everyone else does not constitute a “side.”
You should just speak for yourself and not waste your time trying to defend a hash tag used by an angry mob. There is no purpose to #gamergate other than chaos and noise.
I have to disagree that there is no other “side.” Sure, they didn’t have a hashtag until recently, but in the past few weeks I’ve seen plenty of anti-GG Twitter mobs that were just as vicious as the worst GG mobs. Notable examples are the ones that swarmed Owen Good and GaymerX after they made “neutral” statements and demanded that they unequivocally denounce #Gamergate.
And I honestly think that the, in many cases, overblown reaction to #GG have played a big part in keeping this going for so long. Even now, the counter-hashtag campaign has pushed the original hashtag to by far its highest level ever.
But you’re certainly right that, now at least, #gamergate has no purpose other than chaos and noise. But I would say the same about #StopGamerGate2014. It’s all just one big, aimless riot now.
I can only hope that after this is all over, everyone can take a careful look back to understand why this happened, and why it turned out like it did. Maybe then, we might learn something from this.
@INH5, I’m with you that there are crazies on both sides. But I don’t think you can say that #StopGamerGate2014 has “no purpose other than chaos and noise”. The purpose is specified in the name.
I’m sure you’ll object that this only means people will tag GG more. In the short run, you’re right. Here are some things I think that #SSG14 accomplishes in order of increasing importance:
1) Signals to future would-be Intels that giving into the crazies means more, not less, negative attention.
2) provides some counter to the claim that GG represents the gamer identity. GG is an image problem for the entire gaming community and industry. We can’t let them be seen to be speaking for us anymore.
3) Some people were afraid to speak out on GG because they were afraid of being singled out by trolls. A whole bunch of people tweeting at about the same time probably gave some of them the courage to speak out.
No doubt, SGG14 is gonna have some trolls. But there is the thing: The message of SGG14 is extremely simple: “Stop!” That’s the right message to GG trolls. That’s the right message to SGG14 trolls. Stop.
Also, I think there’s a fundamental ethical problem with telling people “your reactions are only making it worse”. That logic ultimately gives the power to GamerGate–if everyone asks themselves before they speak up “will this make GamerGate better or worse”, that means GamerGate has a lot of power to determine people’s actions.
Well, to heck with that. I mean, I didn’t like those original articles either. But GamerGate reactions shouldn’t get to determine what I get to read.
Ugh, sorry this went on forever. tl;dr I think the SGG14 tag did accomplish some good, even if I don’t think it solves the underlying problem.
I believe I was clear that GG was not equivalent nor compared to the KKK. I used the KKK as an example of how people who were *members of a hate group* can say, straight-faced, “We aren’t a hate group.”
The only group more widely known than the KKK as a hate group would be the Nazi Party, but Americans weren’t very into Nazism. A hell of a lot of Americans once belonged to the KKK.
I am sorry if this was unclear. I am not saying that self-identifying with GG is equivalent to joining the KKK.
This is just moving from twitter to here, sorry for this Damien, I will try to avoid bringing any comment on the subject here.
Im fan of your work and one of your players, apreciate you trying reason in an unreasonable situation.
And I do get where you come from and why you do what you do. Even if i dont agree with it exacly.
I hope against hope that cooler heads will prevail.